New power amp for Quad 11Ls

I own LS3/5As which are roughly the same as your speakers, but somewhat higher sensitivity than the 83dB of the LS3/5As. You don't need a lot of power to make these speakers perform as they were designed. Also, they respond well to voltage changes so they are very good with smallish (18-25W) tube amps.

But, as Bob Reynolds suggested, you are asking too much from your amp. It really is best with you sitting 6-8 feet away and the speaker separated by the same amount, pulled at least 1M away from side and back walls. If you do this, you will hear the true glory of these speakers.

The Quad 12L will give you more bass and a more extended treble at the expense of sound staging. It will work better in a bigger room, and so on....up the line

I should clarify, too. The room is relatively large, but the listening position is roughly what Frihed90 described (sitting 10 feet away with the speakers 8 feet apart and the speakers 3 feet out from the wall).

The idea behind my question was whether, given the Quad 11L's 86dB sensitivity, moving from 50 wpc to 100 wpc would get more out of them. Some posts on this thread and others suggest that it would. But now I wonder whether I'm really just looking for reasons to buy a new amp .... Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but it's not what I intended.

Well, I went ahead with the PS Audio Trio A100. I'm glad I did. I got a good enough deal that I figured I couldn't lose money, and I like what I'm hearing. Improved clarity, detail, and transparency. More bass definition as well; this is the one area where the change has made the limitations of my little speakers clear.

All the feedback was helpful, thanks, and so was this thread:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1257968025&read&3&zzlDante7&&